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Article
Publication date: 8 September 2023

Ross Dowsett, Noel Kinrade, David Whiteside, Dillon Lawson, Cleveland Barnett, Daniele Magistro and Luke Wilkins

Despite the perceived benefits of implementing virtual reality (VR) training in elite sport, arguably the most important element – the perceptions of practitioners – has been…

Abstract

Purpose

Despite the perceived benefits of implementing virtual reality (VR) training in elite sport, arguably the most important element – the perceptions of practitioners – has been largely understudied. Therefore, the present study aims to explore practitioners' perceptions of VR training in elite football and baseball, with a focus on the important factors, obstacles, perceived knowledge and practical use of the technology.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative approach measuring practitioner perceptions via an online questionnaire was adopted. Football respondents (n = 25) represented practitioners from major football leagues across the world, and baseball respondents (n = 15) represented practitioners from Major League Baseball.

Findings

Both football and baseball respondents reported that the most important factor for implementation of VR training was improvement in on-field performance (technical and tactical); whilst cost was viewed as the biggest obstacle. Both football and baseball respondents also noted that the most likely group to receive VR training would be injured and rehabilitating athletes. Mann–Whitney U tests revealed that football respondents perceived coach (p = 0.02) and executive approval (p < 0.001) as significantly greater obstacles than baseball respondents.

Originality/value

This research provides novel and invaluable information for stakeholders within VR regarding what the elite organisations of different sports perceive as the most important factors for implementation, as well as greatest obstacles preventing use. This information should guide future development and marketing of VR training systems in sport.

Details

Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, vol. 13 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-678X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 August 2023

Heath McDonald, Steven Dunn, Dominik Schreyer and Byron Sharp

The purpose is to review literature on sports season ticket subscriptions to distil current knowledge and guide future research and practice.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose is to review literature on sports season ticket subscriptions to distil current knowledge and guide future research and practice.

Design/methodology/approach

A systematic literature review is conducted of research on sports season tickets, a long-established and innovative subscription category.

Findings

In-depth examination of 28 papers showed a focus on drivers of satisfaction, churn and renewal causes, and product utilisation rates. Subscription markets typically involve many “solely loyal” consumers, most purchasing one or two subscriptions in a category. From reduced barriers to entry and exit to “curated” subscriptions, subscription marketing is changing very quickly. Sports marketers build relationships with subscribers using behavioural data, tier benefits to distinguish between casual and subscribing customers, and create recall and scarcity around key aspects of subscription to combat churn and increase utilisation.

Research limitations/implications

Scarce research on subscription marketing practices remains the primary limitation. Existing research suggests that strong connections between subscriber and organisation, heavy product utilisation and/or strong barriers to switching drive customer satisfaction and retention.

Practical implications

Rapid expansion of subscription products should reduce “excess loyalty”, meaning that subscription models' main benefit will be limited to reoccurring revenue. Exceptions occur when consumers are heavily connected to the product or have little provider choice, so allocate their category buying exclusively. New subscription products face myriad challenges. Guidance on effective subscription marketing from sports marketing research and practice is outlined.

Originality/value

By combining research on market structure, marketing empirical generalisations and subscription marketing, this paper guides future research and practice.

Details

Journal of Service Management, vol. 35 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-5818

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 February 2024

Richard J. Paulsen

While much of the literature testing for shirking by professional athletes have used performance metrics, some works have quantified shirking in dollar terms by comparing salary…

Abstract

Purpose

While much of the literature testing for shirking by professional athletes have used performance metrics, some works have quantified shirking in dollar terms by comparing salary to estimated marginal revenue product (MRP). However, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) approaches to measuring shirking by comparing salary to MRP have an endogeneity problem, as salary and contract length are determined simultaneously. We test for shirking in Major League Baseball (MLB) using an MRP approach, addressing this potential endogeneity.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses instrumental variables regression to address potential endogeneity using MLB season-level player and team data from 2010 to 2017.

Findings

Using OLS regression, the impact of an additional year of guaranteed contract on shirking is estimated at approximately $1m in 2010 US dollars, and the impact of having a long-term contract is estimated at $5m, estimates comparable to those in the literature. Using instrumental variables regression, these impacts increase to $1.6m and over $9m in 2010 dollars.

Practical implications

Given large, causal shirking estimates, profit maximizing sports organizations should take caution when negotiating long-term contracts. These findings also have important implications for other labor market settings where workers feel job security.

Originality/value

To our knowledge, this is the first work testing for shirking in sports using an MRP approach which uses instrumental variables regression to address potential endogeneity.

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 March 2023

Massimo Ruberti

This study explores the motivations underlying the European Super League (SL) breakaway attempt. While institutional settings bind football to tradition, investors conceive…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study explores the motivations underlying the European Super League (SL) breakaway attempt. While institutional settings bind football to tradition, investors conceive football companies as an opportunity to diversify their investments in a fast-growing technological industry. The study investigates the market structure and identifies the reasons behind the European football crisis, proposing to modify the role of Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in the European football market.

Design/methodology/approach

After summarizing the unusual features of the European football market, the article displays the agents involved and their interrelations. Modeling the market facilitates picturing the misalignment of targets of regulatory bodies and football clubs. It also helps visualize the potential consequences of the SL coup on the market.

Findings

The market does not allow football companies to monetize their business and compete with other entertainment sectors. Only a radical change in the balance of power between clubs and self-interested institutional settings can settle this situation. Indeed, this relation leads to market inefficiency because the two most critical clubs' financial problems (the high dependence on broadcasting revenues and the uncontrolled expenditures on players' salaries) are linked to the same issue: the governing bodies strongly influence the profit equation by holding control of media rights and incentivizing clubs to overspend to win both on-field and off-field.

Originality/value

This study is the first to assess the football business market using an evolutionary approach to address its problems. It offers a visualizing tool to understand the market and proposes an alternative solution for solving the football market crisis.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 37 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 June 2023

Shintaro Sato, Yong Jae Ko, Daehwan Kim and Joon Sung Lee

The purpose of this research is to examine how pre-scandal associations and scandal types interactively influence consumer judgment and negative electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM).

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to examine how pre-scandal associations and scandal types interactively influence consumer judgment and negative electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM).

Design/methodology/approach

Drawing from cognitive dissonance theory and associative memory network model, the online experiments (Amazon Mechanical Turk; Nexperiment 1 = 146 and Nexperiment 2 = 189) were conducted to examine the effects of positive pre-scandal associations (performance vs pro-social) and scandal types (performance-related vs -unrelated) on consumer blame and eWOM toward scandalized athletes. Data were analyzed by employing t-test (experiment 1), Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) and PROCESS Model 8 (experiment 2) to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The findings highlight that positive pre-scandal association demonstrated both protecting and backfiring effects depending on the types of scandals. Specifically, when performance-related scandals emerged, consumers made more negative blame judgment of athletes with salient performance association, relative to pro-social association. Inversely, when performance-unrelated scandals occurred, athletes with salient pro-social association were more likely to be blamed. Regarding eWOM, consumers generate more negative eWOM when athletes with pre-performance associations are involved with performance-related scandals. This pattern of the result was not observed when athletes' pro-social association and performance-unrelated scandals were prominent.

Originality/value

The current work adds consumers' negative eWOM toward scandalized athletes to the literature as a predictor of how athletes' pre-scandal association with consumers and scandal types are related. The findings indicate that consumers feel greater dissonance and generate more negative eWOM when athletes' pre-scandal associations and scandal types are closely related.

Details

International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1464-6668

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 3 April 2024

Christopher McMahon and Peter Templeton

Moving away from the stories of financial disaster we encountered in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 examines what it means for fans when their club is suddenly awash with more financial…

Abstract

Moving away from the stories of financial disaster we encountered in Chapter 2, Chapter 3 examines what it means for fans when their club is suddenly awash with more financial muscle than some nation-states due to the generosity of a wealthy benefactor who is seemingly more interested in sporting glory than in financial gain. This chapter engages with the notion of the football club as a billionaire’s plaything. Roman Abramovich’s acquisition of Chelsea in 2003 saw the West London club embark on an eye-watering spending spree and a sustained period of on-field successes, one that was unknown in the club’s history to that point. As a result, we take Chelsea during the Abramovich era as a starting point for considering how this model of ownership affects the relationship between fans and the connection that they have with their club. The evident success that financial muscle can bring shows owners what a happy fanbase is capable of, what they are capable of doing, and what they are capable of ignoring. The success of the financially doped teams of the 2000s created a precedent for winning over a fanbase with a successful football club, but nevertheless sat awkwardly with the normative ideals of how a football club should exist in the world and relate to its supporters.

Details

Contradictions in Fan Culture and Club Ownership in Contemporary English Football: The Game's Gone
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83549-024-2

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 September 2023

Matthew Mazzei and W. Nathan Kirkpatrick

The authors integrate the established literature on corporate entrepreneurship with the expanding inquiry into sport entrepreneurship by examining professional teams and leagues…

Abstract

Purpose

The authors integrate the established literature on corporate entrepreneurship with the expanding inquiry into sport entrepreneurship by examining professional teams and leagues across North America. By situating the discussion in the context of organizational theory on competition, the authors argue for how teams (contestants) and leagues (organizers) uniquely apply the different forms of corporate entrepreneurship, providing contemporary examples of each. Additionally, the authors identify notable challenges of entrepreneurship within a sport context, emphasizing components that allowed organizations to overcome these concerns. By shining a light on the occurrences and challenges of corporate entrepreneurship within the sport industry, the authors hope to continue the push for greater interest in and examination of sport-related innovation and entrepreneurship.

Design/methodology/approach

This work researches and shares numerous examples across the North American sport landscape to illustrate corporate innovation and venturing by sport entities.

Findings

This research identifies innovation, sourced from different competitive actors, involving new products, new services, new processes and new administrative structures and approaches, and even includes the development of new businesses.

Originality/value

In looking at the entrepreneurial efforts of established sport teams and leagues, the authors highlight the impressive efforts of these entities to innovate, grow and evolve their products, service offerings and markets despite unique industrial constraints.

Details

Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-678X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 September 2023

Ho Wook Shin, Sungho Cho and Jong Kwan Lee

Integrating the resource-based view (RBV) with pay dispersion research, the authors examine how the allocation of resources between hiring new employees and compensating current…

Abstract

Purpose

Integrating the resource-based view (RBV) with pay dispersion research, the authors examine how the allocation of resources between hiring new employees and compensating current employees, as well as the allocation of resources among new employees, affects organizational performance.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors use panel data on Major League Baseball teams. The authors also use system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimations to control for the impact of past performance on current performance, unobserved individual heterogeneity and omitted variable bias.

Findings

The authors find that the larger the portion of the human resources (HR) budget allocated to hiring new employees, the poorer organizational performance becomes unless the focal organization has already significantly underperformed. The authors also find that pay concentration among new employees has a positive impact on organizational performance unless the focal organization has already significantly overperformed.

Originality/value

This study extends RBV research by examining how resource allocation patterns affect organizational performance, which has rarely been studied. Moreover, by showing the organizational context's significant effect on the outcome of financial allocation for resource acquisition, this study extends both the RBV research and the pay dispersion research.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 61 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 February 2024

Christopher M. Harris, Lee Warren Brown and Mark B. Spence

This study examines factors that influence organizations’ choices of an internal human capital development strategy and an external human capital acquisition strategy. The human…

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines factors that influence organizations’ choices of an internal human capital development strategy and an external human capital acquisition strategy. The human resource architecture indicates that organizations will use different human capital acquisition strategies. Following the resource-based view, human capital theory and the human resource architecture, we examine factors that impact the choices of different human capital acquisition strategies.

Design/methodology/approach

We examine these important human capital decisions in the context of Major League Soccer. Data to test the hypotheses were collected from a variety of publicly available sources. We tested the hypotheses with regression analyses.

Findings

We find that while organizations employ both internal and external human capital strategies, organizations may have one dominant human capital strategy and the other strategy may be used to supplement the human capital needs of organizations. Additionally, our results indicate that organizations with an older workforce tend to use an internal human capital development strategy, while higher performing organizations are less likely to use an internal human capital development strategy.

Originality/value

This study makes contributions by examining the choices between internal and external human capital strategies and factors that influence the choice of an internal or external human capital strategy.

Details

Employee Relations: The International Journal, vol. 46 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 February 2024

Ali Hasaan, Adele Berndt and Mücahit Fişne

The increased importance of sports and athlete brands highlights the need for athletes to pay attention to branding as it has positive impacts. As athletes, Muslim women have not…

Abstract

Purpose

The increased importance of sports and athlete brands highlights the need for athletes to pay attention to branding as it has positive impacts. As athletes, Muslim women have not succeeded in building their brands. This study aims to understand the branding challenges facing Muslim female athletes and how to overcome them.

Design/methodology/approach

These branding obstacles and guidelines were explored using qualitative methods – specifically semi-structured interviews with Muslim female athletes and focus groups with experts. Data were analysed using open and axial coding to identify the codes.

Findings

The study identifies three major obstacles to branding by Muslim female athletes. Self-related obstacles, such as knowledge of brand building, social media, personal pressure and a lack of role models, impact the brand-building decision. Social-related (family and society) and sport-related obstacles (participation as women and as Muslims) further complicate this task. Experts provide additional insights regarding these obstacles, suggesting strategies to overcome them.

Research limitations/implications

The research focuses on athletes from one geographical area and has limitations associated with using qualitative methods.

Practical implications

The study suggests how self-, social- and sport-related obstacles are faced by athletes. It provides suggestions for federations, sports codes and other stakeholders to support athletes to overcome these barriers.

Originality/value

This study expands the understanding of the struggles Muslim women face in building their brands as part of an under-represented group.

Details

Journal of Islamic Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1759-0833

Keywords

1 – 10 of 113